Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper’s budget director told a group of Republican lawmakers on Thursday that identifying efficiencies alone would not close the state’s anticipated $1.1 billion budget shortfall, The Pueblo Chieftain reports.

College presidents were eager to tout their completion rates, growing enrollments of first-generation and minority students, increased cooperation with neighboring colleges and school districts, growing use of online instruction and their big economic impacts on their regions and the state.

The Joint Budget Committee, with four new members, has begun the process of working on the 2011-12 budget with briefings from its staff on 11 state agencies and a meeting with Gov. Bill Ritter on his proposal for the next fiscal year, The Colorado Statesman reports.

A term-limited Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday presented his final budget to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, encouraging committee members to approach this coming budget cycle “with an open mind.”

An independent audit presented today to a legislative panel shows that Colorado still trails other states in state-government employee benefits, but some lawmakers cried foul in light of benefits in the private sector that they say lag even further behind the state’s offerings.